Fact: Because she's from Taiwan, Chieh Wei Chen has never before seen more than an inch of snow.

"This is my boyfriend, he just accompanied me here and he goes back to Taiwan tomorrow to work. The snow is very new to us, because we are from (a) tropical country. It only snows in high mountains, and only a little bit of snow. And the whole news would broadcast about that little piece of snow. I had seen snow in Korea, but not like this. It’s cold, I feel like I lost my nose! He was really excited when he saw so much snow. Now, when we see the flat snow, I think it’s just instinct — we want to step on it and ruin it. I don’t know why, it looks beautiful right now but we just want to step on it!" 

Jeremy Plesco

MSU alumnus and owner of Fortress Comics & Games

Fact: Earned a degree in microbiology and molecular genetics

"I attended MSU as a freshman in 1999. I got a degree in microbiology and molecular genetics, and then another degree in human biology. But it ended up being that I just decided that I wanted to make my hobby my job — so I bought a game store."

"Not only was opening the store a huge pay cut, it was also like taking what money I did have and what life savings I did have and throwing it at something and hoping that I could recoup it. So that was crazy, that was extremely stressful. But in the end, I looked at it and knew I’d be happier doing it than anything else."

Marissa Mott

Studio art junior

Fact: Wants to be an illustrator, but MSU doesn't offer the right program, so for now specializes in painting and graphic design. 

"I used to be in the James Madison Collegeka, but I left that after a year. It’s a little more uncertain being an art major, but I’ll figure it out. Ultimately, if I could be an illustrator — and just be an illustrator, because you can do that remotely. 

Really I want to move to, I don’t know, Northern Michiganka or the U.P. area and be an in-house illustrator somewhere and I could live up there and do my gardening and grow vegetables and make art, then that would be amazing. But ... that’s probably not going to happen."

Bart Dijkman

Working in East Lansing

Fact: Sold a $10 million company in Amsterdam to move to the United States

"When I was twenty, I went to the university at Rotterdamka and studied economics. But I kind of got lonely and started gambling. After I gambled all my money away, I got three jobs, made too much money and I made a ten-week round-trip in the United States in 1987. I went everywhere. Made a whole circle with a little Dodge Ram with camping equipment on the roof. We went to a lot of state parks, but in the cities we stayed in raggedy hotels. I did it when I was the perfect age for the American drinking age — I was 21 years old when I made that trip. That’s how I fell in love with the United States.

The hardest decision — so far — that I’ve had to make was what made me move here. My wife told me that she wanted to move here without me, but with the kids. At that time, I had a $10 million company in Amsterdam. I had to make the decision to sell the company, or get rid of my wife. I decided to sell the company, obviously."